A Tangled Courtship

Chapter 4- Happily Never After

"Mother! Father!" Anne closed the gap from the door to their table to the side of the columned walled throne room, "tell this Spoilt Prince what he says is not true. Tell me I am not destined to marry the Prince of Otren!"

Anne waited for an answer when behind her, she heard the doors thunder again, this time followed by a murmuring of thanks and clicking of boot heels. She didn't need to look next to her to know the presence she now felt was Prince Christopher, standing un-rightfully by her side.

"Corianne." Christopher drawled the Queen of Canlyra's name.

The snarky little bastard bowed with nothing but deceiving charm and charisma that Anne had seen used time again upon fawning females.

Queen Corianne bowed her head slightly in return, "Christopher, age has treated you well."

"As it did you, Your Majesty, ageing like fine wine I see."

If a peasant ever said such a statement to the queen it would lead to them being dragged out of the palace by their ankles. However, Christopher's unnerving charm made these statements sound nothing but delightful.

Anne's gut twisted when she looked to her mum and recognised that slight upturn in her lips. The first boy that Corianne had ever been pleased with. Her hot blood started to boil and bubbled over.

"Tell him he is being ridiculous!" The Princess snapped, not caring if they had company, "and that you are meeting for nothing more than tea and discussion on Otren and Canlyra's annual profits."

Silence fell around Anne's world as she started to thread together the pieces she never thought would be significant.

Christopher was the only prince Anne had seen more than once and had not been told was an eligible bachelor for marriage in her youth as a touring Princess.

Every Princess spent a large portion of their youth touring to each of the Seven Lands, meeting eligible bachelors for the Lady's, Duchesses and Princesses of the Lands, hands in marriage.

Ingenious really, give Anne a chance to fall for all the men in Canlyra, then when gone through every possible option, be left with nothing more to marry than a prince that could benefit the land greatly.

Teacups clinked on their matching saucers as all the parents put them down, the King of Otren placing his half-eaten raspberry macaroon on his saucer as well. Crumbs trailing in his beard.

Queen Corianne broke the silence with an ice calm tone that stabbed Anne's future in the heart.

"You must know Anne, you really were intended to be the first Queen without a King."

"And damn right I still am!"

"But," her mother went on, "things have changed more than we expected and it is time for you to marry sooner than we expected."

Anne couldn't think, being arranged to marry someone was one thing but actually doing so, in today's society meant immediate ascension to the throne for both her and Christopher, who if was the prince of another land meant her parents were handing main leadership to a prince corrupt with loyalty to another land already.

"Well, I don't want to marry him!"

The princess didn't care she sounded like a spoilt and petulant child, Anne's entire life had been dedicated to preparing for a lone ruling. The number of alliances and friendships the land and royal family had lost from this 'futuristic view' was too many to simply throw it away.

Anne stood tall, grasping at any strings that could get her out of this. This wasn't just blasphemy, it was self sabotage to her own land.

Silence still echoed through the throne room with a hollow and painful reverberation.